Bridge practice and instruction board



April 28, 1936. A. Y. HARDY BRIDGE Pl lACTICE AND INSTRUCTION BOARDFiled April 23, 1934 2 Sheets- Sheet 1 LEAD 1111 9 LEAD 2 WIN LEAD 5 WINLEAD 113 7 WIN LEAD 8 NORTH m %4/?0/Y A 622w) auto WM;

April-28, 1 I A. Y. HARDY 2,038,734

BRIDGE PRACTICE AND INSTRUCTION BOARD Filed April 25, 1954 2Sheets-Sheet 2 I /7 /d g;

I 9 k/z' "3mm Patented Apr. 28, 1936 Ni'l'ED STATES PATENT OFFIE BRIDGEPRACTICE AND INSTRUCTION BOARD This invention relates to a game board,more particularly designed for practice and instruction in the game ofbridge. The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple,compact,

board-like structure which will retain four complete bridge hands andprovide retaining means for holding the tricks or plays from these handsso that the same may be repeated, studied and practiced.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for enabling theuser to quickly and easily set up prearranged hands and for directingthe user in the proper method of playing. these hands.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of theinvention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency.These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention reference is hadto the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. Like numeralsrefer to like parts in all views of the drawings and throughout thedescription.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the complete board ready to receive theplaying cards.

Fig. 2 is a cross section therethrough, taken on the line 22, Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a face view of an indicating strip which may be employed withthe board.

Fig. 4 illustrates the reverse face of the indicating strip.

Fig. 5 is a face view of the board, partially broken away to illustratethe internal structure. In this View, typical hands of playing cards areillustrated in the position they would occupy after three tricks havebeen played.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged section through one edge of the board,illustrating a playing card and indicating strip in place therein.

The invention comprises a board, preferably built up from threerelatively thick sheets of material such as cardboard, fiber board,wood,

or the like. In the drawing the three sheets forming the complete boardare indicated by numeral as follows: face sheet l0, spacing sheet II,and backing sheet l2. The three sheets are glued, cemented, or otherwisesecured together.

They are preferably bound with an ornamental binding strip I3.

The face sheet [0 is divided so as to form four player sections I4,preferably designated as West, North, East, and South. Within 5 theplayer sections is a trick area l5. The corners of the board may besuitably ornamented such'as by'indications I6 of the various suitsemployed in playing cards.

In the face sheet In, at each of the player sections, a slot is formedwhich will be herein 6 designated as the hand slot H. In the trick areal5 of the face sheet I0, four parallel lateral slots are formed whichwill be herein designated as the trick slots l8. Relatively wide slotsl9 and 20 are formed in the spacing sheet H 10 immediately below theslots l1 and I8, respectively. The slots l9 and 20 extend considerablyto one side of the slots in the sheet l0 so as to provide a space intowhich the lower edge of the cards may be slid, as shown in Fig. 6.

Spacing markers 2| are printed on the face sheet) along each of the handslots l1, and similar spacing markers 22 are formed along the trickslots IS. The latter slots are also designated by an initialcorresponding to one of the player positions, as W, N, E, and S,respectively. Immediately below the lowermost trick slot I8 is an index23 to designate the number of the-tricks above.

The board as thus far described, may be em.- ployed for studying orpracticing either accidental or preset hands. The hands are set up ineach of the hand slots I! with one edge of each card aligning with oneof the spacing markers 2|. The 3 hands may be then played in rotationand, as each card is played, it is placed in its corresponding trickslot l8. After a game has been completed, the player can study thetricks as they are all exposed before him in the trick area l5. He 35can see instantly which hand played any given card, and can plan hisfuture plays so as to improve his game.

The board can be employed to set up preset hands, and the plays can beindicated so that 40 these hands will be played in a preplanned manner.This may be accomplished by employing indicating strips 24, such asillustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. These strips are of a length substantiallyequal to the length of the hand slots l1, and car- 45 ry a designation26 of one of the hands. The strips are marked off in spaces similarto'the spacing of the indicating markers 2|. On one face of each of thestrips 24 are indications 25 for setting up a preset hand. On thereverse side 50 of the strip 24, a series of numerals 21 may be placedto indicate the order in which the cards of that hand should be played.If a card in that hand is to be led, it is preferred to indicate this bythe word lead as shown at 28. If the trick is to'be won by a card ofthat hand, this is also indicated by the word win as shown at 29.

I1 below the indicating strips 24, as shown in. Figs. 5 and 6. When allof the handshave been set up, the player may play them according to hisown judgment, or he may reverse each'of the indicating strips 24 andplay the hands according to the directions thereon, thus receiving anexpert example ,as to how the hands would be played by an expert.-

A variety of diiferent strips 24Vcan be furnished with each board andadditional strips may be obtained from time to time sothat a very broad'knowledge as to the professional manner of handling differentsituations may be obtained by r the user.

It will be noted that the cards areautomatical- 1y aligned since theirbottom edges are aligned by the sides of the slots [9 and 20, in thespacing strip I I.

While a specific form of the improvement has been describedandillustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same maybe varied, within the scope of the appended claim,'without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what'is claimed and desired securedby Letters Patent is:V a 7 -A bridge practice board comprising: aboardlike member having rectangularly positioned slots in one of itsfaces for receiving hands of cards and having an additional series ofslots for receiving the card tricks played from said hands; and a seriesof indicating strips formed to be re ceived in said first slots andcarrying designations for designating the proper card and position alongsaid slots; 7

' AARON Y. HARDY.

